River Otters

I am joining a really small swim team in Discovery Bay in April and super excited.  It is fairly new and I am so impressed with the families I have met.  I feel like I have done everything in swimming that I want to do.  I have no desire to be a college coach.  I have done USS, rec, different age groups, different teams, different philosophies, part-time, more full time, clinics, learn to swim, lessons galore, no lessons.  It has all been great.  I have been blessed that I have been able to go and do what I want and at different capacities with what worked with my family and schedule at the time.  I have been really lucky to work with incredible coaches!  It is really liberating to be able to be where I know I should be and do what I am passionate about.  Right now I am passionate about helping to grow swim in a community where it isn't that big alongside other passionate coaches in our area. 

My new team is getting a new pool which will be done next year.  In the meantime we will be working out at a brand new high school pool.  I live in an area with so many beautiful, new pools being built but not that many teams.  I came from an area with ancient pools which produced masses of swimmers.  The cities with the masses of swimmers aren't willing to build new pools.  It is so backwards in someways.  I have heard coaches say swim will never be that big out here because it is a different culture, but I want to believe that is a fixed mindset approach. 

So that is what I am going to do.  I am not worried so much about how this year will look but instead excited about growing a great program.  Starting small and making swimmers and coaches realize how fun swim can be.  That is something I have realized I really enjoy doing.  I like creating programs.  I like trying new things. I like seeing what works and what doesn't work.  I really enjoyed developing the otter pup program at Dana Hills and helping our spirit squad start coaching.  I look forward to hopefully making swim a really fun swim program for all the kids who do it.  We only have water for about 2 hours in the spring which will be nice for my family but also exciting to be able to make those 2 hours really quality.  Super excited!!!